Those beautiful summer- vacation photos are in a cardboard box. Somewhere.

The souvenirs you picked up overseas years ago are jumbled in a drawer. Why not showcase these personal treasures and create great art at the same time?

One way to do it is to mount shelves or frames on a wall and fill them with whatever pleases you. Decorators call it a salon wall, and it has origins in 17th-century Paris, when the Royal Academy held exhibitions, or “salons,” to showcase student work.

“It’s the eclecticism — photos with found objects, for example — that makes it beautiful and stylish,” she says.

To create a salon wall, lay out the arrangement on the floor first, and then transfer it from the floor to the wall, piece by piece.

“Start at the center of the composition and work your way outward, a little bit in each direction,” Griffin says.

Spacing looks better when it’s equal around an individual element. Use a geometric shape — square, circle, triangle or diamond — as a loose basis for your arrangement.

Create a focal point from which all the elements radiate, Griffin advises.

“It’s nice if you have the entire collection for a wall ready to hang at once, but you don’t have to — you can install as you collect,” Griffin says.

David Kassel, a collage artist in New York, creates salon walls. Through his company, ILevel, (ilevel.biz), he’ll put up anything a client gives him, but also offers his own collections: exotic turtle shells, vintage medicine bottles, colorful plates, even a framed set of 1940s Rorschach ink blots.

“For small objects you can use shadow boxes. Sconces are a wonderful way to display bottles, vases, rocks or any three dimensional objects. You can choose from simple contemporary wall wedges or more traditional options like carved, gold-leaf sconces,” Kassel says.

If you want to turn your wall into a photo gallery, hanging the pictures without frames creates a clean look that lets the pictures pop, says Jeff Southard, a spokesman for Collagewall.com, which helps clients create photo walls. Avoid hanging several versions of the same picture, he says; instead, use a variety of close-ups, action shots, etc.

“Given the choice between a perfect bland photo and a flawed, energetic one, go for the lively one,” Southard says.

“Don’t be afraid to exhibit your passion. Cars, kids, architecture — even good food. When guests come over, you can talk about something you love.”

San Francisco photographer Jason Rodman, for example, mounted a series of black-and-white images of the city on his wall. In Seattle, Sara Shrader’s pride in her two baseball-loving sons led her to take photos of their team caps over the years.